Battle of the Netherlands

The Battle of the Netherlands (10-17 May 1940) was the invasion of the Netherlands by Nazi Germany during its blitzkrieg offensives in the Low Countries in the second year of World War II. The 750,000-strong German Wehrmacht defeated the unprepared Royal Netherlands Army and occupied the country in one week, and the Germans launched the first mass parachute drop operations in the history of warfare when its fallschirmjaegers secured airfields near Rotterdam and The Hague. However, the Dutch had put up stiffer resistance than expected, only surrendering after the brutal bombing of Rotterdam by the Luftwaffe.

The Netherlands had proclaimed its neutrality at the start of World War II, just as it had done in World War I; its pacifist movement had decreased the size of the Royal Netherlands Army during the Interwar period, and its generals debated over whether the Germans would invade or not. In fact, the original German Schlieffen Plan only included Belgium as a victim of a German flanking attack on France, not the Netherlands. However, the Chief of the German Luftwaffe air force, Hermann Goering, argued that the Germans would need air bases in the Netherlands if they were to mount a successful campaign against the United Kingdom. The airfields were just across the English Channel from England, and they could be utilized for any planned invasion of the British Isles. Therefore, Adolf Hitler resolved on conquering the Netherlands as well.

At dawn on 10 May 1940, the Luftwaffe bombed airfields across the Low Countries and in France, establishing immediate air superiority over the Netherlands. A second wave then took out headquarters, communications centers, railroads, and military camps, and fallschirmjaeger paratroops were dropped over the Netherlands, assaulting an airfield in Rotterdam, three in The Hague, and crossings over major river defensive lines. The Dutch had learned lessons from the German invasion of Norway and were prepared for airborne operations, resisting the German troops. However, they were no match for the Germans, who penetrated deep into the country within 48 hours. The Dutch withdrew to the protection of fortifications in the south, and the Germans focused on capturing Rotterdam, which was fiercely protected by the Dutch. The city had already surrendered when the Germans launched a wave of bombers against it, and radio orders for the bombers to abort the mission did not go through, leading to 1,000 civilians losing their lives as the city was devastated. The Dutch, who had already begun to run low on ammunition, surrendered on 15 May, and resistance in Zeeland stopped on 17 May. The Germans created Reichskomissariat Niederlande, the civilian occupation regime in the Netherlands, as the Dutch royal family went into exile in the United Kingdom; the Dutch chose not t osurrender, and it would not be until 1942 that the Dutch East Indies was occupied by another Axis power, Japan.